20. A New Beginning

Since I've been back from Perth, I haven't really gotten up to too much. I have had one of those irritating colds that won't go away for most of winter. You know, the kind of cold that every time you step outside and there's even the slightest breeze your nose starts to run? Or what about the type of cold that makes you tired when you need energy and then you have too much energy when you don't actually need it? (for example when you want to go to bed...)

Asides from that lovely aspect of winter (yes I know, winter here is far more reasonable than winter in Canada) I have been playing tennis at least once a week with my coach. He's been working on my footwork because it is atrocious (what a surprise!) and desperately needed help. I can't tell if it's because I am too dumb to understand or just lacking the clarity I need to comprehend what he is telling me, but there are so many different things to work on all at once that I seem to mess it all up or confuse it all. Who knew tennis could be such a complicated sport!

Today was also the last day of my job with American Express. It is now time to move on with the next job (which I still don't have a start date for, ah the life of being a temp!) and finish off the remaining months I have left here.

I called this entry a new beginning because I am slowly entering into what I think is the next phase of my time here in Australia. I have started some reconstructive surgery on my tennis and will be starting another new job role as well. It's also given me more clarity to this thing we call university...

I have 4 months left here in Australia and I want to maximize the time I spend here. Fingers crossed it will work out the way I hope it does...

20. Perth

Well I was lucky enough to finally make it to another part of Australia: Western Australia. It's quite a long distance to travel in order to get to Perth but after a long flight (nearly 6 hours!!!!) I got there.

The plan was for a nice weekend away where I could get out of Sydney and just relax. And relax I did! After I had some drama with my original hotel I booked, I ended up checking into another but then once settled headed around the city for a nice quiet afternoon wander. After doing that I made my way to a great Italian restaurant in Northbridge. I had dinner on my own in a restaurant for the first time and it was kind of nice to enjoy the food and wine and take it easy.

I headed home afterwards and had an early night and the next day took my time getting up. I had a leisurely early afternoon and then headed to some indoor tennis courts for a grueling 2 hour tennis lesson. It was quite a work out but I still managed to learn a few things to try and improve my game further, specifically with volleying and on my serve. Afterwards, I headed back to my hotel to shower before heading for a nice massage. It was quite relaxing!

The next day I headed down to Fremantle to explore the markets and what that area had to offer. I caught up with a friend named David and he took me around to a few different places. It was quite enjoyable and a really nice area to explore, especially to a pub with some drinks!

On my last day I went for a wander further out of the city towards Kings Park where they have the war memorial. It is a great walk but also has a fantastic view of the city from higher up.

They say Perth is the most isolated city in the world and I would believe it, but it's also one of the quietest cities and seemingly relaxed!

19. Winter

Right, so when I thought to myself that I would come here and be able to avoid winter, I clearly didn't do my research. Evidently, Sydney experiences winter, much like the rest of the world! Now when I say "experiences winter" I don't mean it has an abundance of snow for me to have to shovel, but it certainly isn't 28 and sunny every day. In fact, a couple weeks ago it was around 10 degrees as a high! For a dessert country, it can certainly get cold!

Now while it has decided to rain and be cold, I have discovered that Sydney is the only city in Australia without any indoor courts. Needless to say I am feeling rather obese because I haven't done much if any physical activity. I was trying to get my ass up and to the gym in my building a couple times a week, and that was going great for, oh, a week...Then I decided I was too tired to bother. Another hinderance has been getting a cold that just won't go away. Nothing is more of an excuse than "oh I'm fighting a cold, it's probably not a good idea to work out." So I decided I would force myself to go once a week and do something. I will be doing tennis lessons once a week for an hour. Hopefully it will be a good work out as well as a chance to work on my technique and tactics as well as consistency.

After falling out with one of my friends here, I kind of decided to refocus myself. First I set up the tennis lessons described above, then I discovered a glorious computer program called "Garage Band" where you can create your own music. Little did I know that this would become a huge distraction for me. I have only just started working with the program, but I have a few rough takes and one track that is close to being completed (I'll be sure to share it with you when it's done!) and a few more in the pipeline.

Hopefully something more interesting occurs sometimes soon so I can tell you about it!

18. Eurovision 2009 - Moscow

So it was my first year actually watching Eurovision on TV and not on the internet or YouTube. For those of you who don't know, Eurovision is a song contest that most of the countries in Europe compete in. I am not too sure what they get, asides from probably a record deal in their home country, but it's a pretty big deal nonetheless. It's also quite the spectacle!



They show it on TV here in 3 pieces. The first 2 semi-finals, where they select 10 from each semi-final to move to the final. This is where you see random shit (like the giant Babushka above) in the performances and hear some pretty terrible songs. You also get an idea of who will end up as a front runner. For me personally, I loved Iceland and really enjoyed Portugal as well. The ones I hate: Hungary and Greece. The local television channel that was airing Eurovision kept rattling on about the Australian connection with the Greek song, which I might add was a horrific attempt to sound like a Kylie Minogue song.



The girl above, from Albania, was a bit of an underdog. She is like 16 but really really good. She had quite a catchy song but unfortunately only made it to 17th place in the Grand Final. The front runner, Norway, really ran ahead. It was quite a ridiculous lead he had. You could tell the Australian commentators were getting bored of the whole thing by about hour 2. They kept trying to crack jokes and quickly started making jibes at different people. It was entertaining anyways. Iceland, one of my personal favourites (whose song sounded a lot like something Roxette would have released) came in second place! She was looking stunning in blue (as pictured below). And the UK managed their best showing in quite a few years by placing 5th. They did require the help of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren to write their entry though.



Overall it was an entertaining show to follow this year!

17. Hobart

So sorry for my lack of posts! I have been keeping my head down working hard and it's paying off. My performance level is quite good, so that's good to hear.

I finally decided to visit somewhere outside of Sydney last weekend and chose Hobart. Who wouldn't want to go to Tasmania! It was quite an cool time to go, but still had good weather. The flight was interesting. It was 2 hours direct from Sydney and it was a plane with 2 rows of 3 seats. I told Mark (whom came with me) that whenever I sit on a plane where there are 3 seats, I either get a screaming child, or an obese man who takes up half my seat. What was my lucky fate for this flight? I'll let you guess. Bad body odour, the smell of cheese and half my seat gone later, we arrived in Hobart!

Mark ran into family there (since he's from there) and we ended up meeting up with them again later on. Our first day we went to Port Arthur, Australia's oldest prison settlement. It was beautiful, but also quite interesting to see. A lot of the buildings are in ruins due to bushfires in the areas in the late 1800's, but the area is beautifully manicured and restored now. My favourite parts were seeing the church as well as the actual penitentiary.



The next day we went to the Salamanca markets and they were very interesting. It's much like any market, but very interesting items can be found. It started to rain for the day, so we ended up looking at local art in the galleries around the markets, then had a lovely dinner. Food in Tasmania is much the same everywhere, but you do have to look hard to find some great spots. One of which was a restaurant called "Smolt"...very yummy!

The last day in Hobart, we faffed about and went to Richmond (where you can find the oldest bridge in Australia), a winery on the way (where we tried virtually every wine, and bought a few bottles as well hehe) and then went to this national park where you can find Wine Glass Bay. It was a spectacular drive and eventually a beautiful bay, though admittedly, we left it a little late in the day. We nearly freaked out on the way back as we were driving country roads in the dark and there is a lot of wildlife on the roads. I should say that I freaked I guess because Mark saw a wallaby on the side of the road and I saw it just as it was by the car and I freaked out lol.

Anyways, we made it back okay and for anyone who comes to Australia, you really need to visit Tassie!

16. A New Car and the Blue Mountains

I will be the first to admit that I have neglected this blog and am extremely lazy at updating it. So I am finally getting back on track with it! (Really this just means something interesting happened so I have something to write about...)

My friend Stephen decided that it was time he get a new vehicle. Don't get me wrong, he has had a ton of good memories with his Toyota Camry (lovingly renamed the Kath & Kim Camry), but it was time to move on. You'd be pretty sick of having to jump-start your car every 2 days because the battery wouldn't hold a charge! After doing some heavy research, he decided the Audi A3 was for him. (Who am I kidding? It was German and goes fast....I don't really think that's research, but at least he knew it was both!)

So I went with him to pick up his new Audi and man does the thing go! Who could say no to a car that likes going fast very quickly! It's pictured above, but let me rave about my favourite parts of the car: PANORAMIC SUNROOF. I'll admit I am a bit of a sucker for a nice sunroof, but a panoramic one is nuts. What is it you may ask? Why let me tell you! Not only is it one in the front above the driver and front passenger seats, but there is a fixed panel above the back seats as well. *swoon* If I could fall in love with a part of a car, it'd be a panoramic sunroof.

After Stephen picked up his new car, what better thing was there to do asides from go on a mini road trip?! Well we decided to go to the Blue Mountains as it was a nice drive and I had never been before. The Blue Mountains are quite spectacular to see, but in comparison to the mountains back home, then look more like speed bumps. They are definitely deceiving though as the go on for awhile, but do not have the high peaks like ones back in Canada do.

The Blue Mountains gets its name from the haze that sits over them. This bluish haze is from the Eucalyptus trees that are rampant through Australia and more densely spread over the Blue Mountains. It is really cool to see and I am told its more prevalent at dusk & dawn. We managed to view a few places, but the most famous is the 3 Sisters. We went down into the valley and walked around a bit. To get down there, you have to take a ridiculously steep train. They claim it's the world's steepest railway, but I am not too sure if it counts considering its attached to a cable. And when I say steep, the backs of the seats in front of you keep you from falling out, but if the cage wasn't above you, you most certainly would. Heading back up we took a gondola.

On the way back we stopped at a German cafe and it was so cute! The mountains have a bunch of little towns and they are kind of cute, but at the same time kind of dumpy. They are certainly no match for the Alps in Europe!

15. Another Bloody Water

So when Jonas was here, we went to this Kiwi burger place called Burger Fuel. Among their interesting flavours and doofers (patent pending apparently....I told Jonas to look into it) they had the most bizarre water bottle for sale. So considering I was in stitches while reading it, I figured I needed to type it out here for all to enjoy.

Here is the story of Another Bloody Water.....

Since we unceremoniously (some say rudely) barged our way into the overcrowded bottled water market with a good looking bottle, a smartarse name and a devil may care attitude it has come to our attention that our competitors don't like us*. They think we are taking the piss. That we mock the overly flowery, exaggerated language and the poorly drawn waterfalls and diagrams of volcanoes on their labels. They think that we are not taking the serious aquatic science of bottled water...well seriously.

So to quash any future smear campaign and rumour mongering they may come up with, we're going to set the record straight right here. Smart Alec name-yes. Just another water-no.

First up our water is bloody good. Better than most. It comes from a spring, high in the Victorian Alps, which is a bloody long drive from civilization (see:pollution). The only farms in the area are organic which means no nasty pesticides or any of those other evil poisons end up in the water. In fact we deal with the rampant blackberry problem by setting our deer on them. It's a tough gig for the deer, but they seem to like it. And while we're blowing our own trumpet, independent Government approved laboratories have done tests and they reckon it's lower in sodium than all other major brands on the Australian market. Did we say it tastes bloody good?

So there you go, Doubting Thomas competitors-cards on the table. Enjoy Another Bloody Water, everyone. And then when you're done with that enjoy another Another Bloody Water. And so on.

*We don't actually know if our competitors don't like us. But being competitors we're pretty sure they don't.


So there you have it...quite funny! Directly scribed from water bottle to my blog!

14 - Jonas visits from Canada

Well the time has gone extremely quickly since Jonas first arrived to when he left. Fifteen days truly seems like a ton of time, but let me assure you it went by fast! I wasn't even the one on vacation and it went by fast.

I started off by showing Jonas around the city a bit. We headed to Hyde Park, the CBD and then the Botanical Gardens and the Rocks and Darling Harbour...all in one day! I did my best to tire him out and it worked pretty well.

At that point I ended up catching a nasty cold and started feeling like shiza (that's German for shit for those who don't know) and missed work and man it was unfortunate. Due to illness, I couldn't go out and do anything for a while. Luckily, one of our mutual friends was also here and so he got to head off and do some cool stuff with him. For example, he went to Adelaide and wine country there...the lucky s.o.b.....

Once he got back, I took him shopping! What a good shopping companion I am! We managed to find some new clothes for him that worked well for him. It's always fun going out and doing something like that. (And when I say "something like that" I mean spending someone else's money hehe!)

Afterwards, we headed back to my new flat (more on this in another blog later) to make some dinner before our evening plan. Jonas decided to pack and I was working on dinner when this massively huge lightning/thunderstorm rolled through. It had ridiculously intense
rains and lightning, but only last for about 20 minutes or so. The sun came out afterwards and we thought nothing of it.

For the evening, we had planned to do the BridgeClimb on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I actually wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, but Jonas was just as nervous as I thought he would be. We spent a good part of an hour filling out all the forms and getting suited up and learning how the walk would work. As we were doing this, the room had a huge wall of windows and we just kept seeing flashes of lightning.

By the time we were at the start of the course the skies just opened up and it was an absolute downpour once again. Numerous flashes of lightning mixed with loud thunder really didn't give us much hope of completing the journey. We went out anyways in rain gear to the next safe area and we were absolutely soaked! It was gusting up to about 35 km/h and when you have a ton of rain flying at you that fast...it kind of hurts hehe.

The storm persisted and we didn't get to go past the first safe area, so Jonas and I never got to climb to the top, but we were close! It is one of my goals to do it before I leave here.

As I am writing this, Jonas is on his way back to Vancouver and will be somewhere in New Zealand to make his transfer home, back to shite weather and cold temperatures! It may be turning into fall here, but it's still 20+ degrees and sunny nearly every day!

13. The Hunt

Okay, okay, I know.... It has been forever since I had a blog entry. What can I say? Things have been incredibly boring to be honest. The only thing I have been doing is hunting. Hunting? For what?...... don't worry, it isn't Kangaroos.

I have been on the job hunt and house hunt here in Sydney and let me tell you it's been quite the intense search. This "global financial crisis" has hit Sydney pretty hard as it has hit many other cities. There have been several major job cuts and this has thrown tens of thousands of employees into the hunt as well. In total it took me three weeks to find a job because every interview I went to had at least 40 other people in competition for the role and half of those were Australian. American Express has become my employer for the time being through a recruitment agency and so it's been quite something to go through. I have an appreciation for people back home who are new to Canada and trying to find work, residents and citizens always seem to get work over newcomers or visitors.

The house hunt has also been interesting so far. I've met some dynamic people with some interesting backgrounds. This being my first time living on my own, it's a bit of a learning curve, but I am making progress. Hopefully I will be into a place on my own (or with flatmates) soon enough!

Anyways, this is where my life is at. One day soon, I'll have something interesting to update you with!

(P.S.- The photo is over a night sky over Sydney...)

12. Le Update

So I haven't really updated this blog since arriving back from Melbourne. Nothing terribly exciting has happened since coming back, so I guess this is why I haven't bothered. 

I am feeling like the vacation part of things is slowly trickling away and I am wanting to settle into my life here now. I have been job hunting since coming back from Melbourne and with the way things are going with the global financial crisis, there is a lot of competition for jobs here. I have been on one interview so far and have a second one lined up for the same job. It's a little disheartening to look at the numbers of how many jobs I have applied for and how many I have gotten an interview for.... it's not very good hehe.

I haven't started looking for apartments yet because there is really no sense in me looking if I don't have a job to pay the rent. So I am still kind of waiting on that. Living out of suitcases is slowly starting to drive me mental. I am tired of wrinkled clothing that I either have to wash or iron to get the wrinkles out.

Alas, that is how my boring life goes at this point. I'll update again when I have something more interesting to update you on!

11. Wicked

I just thought I'd split my update into 2 as this next bit isn't very long. While in Melbourne, I was lucky enough to go see Wicked. Wicked is a musical that is about the 2 witches from "The Wizard of Oz" and it tells you about their story. It was something I was told would be a great show to see and since it was in Melbourne, I figured I would go.

I had an absolutely amazing time. The show was really well done (much to my surprise) and that was with 3 understudies! I sat in a great seat (about the 10th row or so) and met 2 Australian girls who were quite funny. One looked like Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks (and funnily enough her name was also Natalie) and her friend Sarah. They were entertaining before the show and during intermission. 

As always, I purchased a program but I also got myself an umbrella from there as it was funky and I didn't have one for Australia yet. Now I do.

Next up for me is a concert on the 3rd (just after my birthday) and then who knows what. I am starting to look for work as well. I shall keep you posted! :-).

10. The Australian Open

First of all, let me apologize for the lack of updates. I have been incredibly busy with being in Melbourne and then coming back here to Sydney and settling in more, so my updating hasn't been a priority. Let me update you on how it was at the Australian Open...

Originally I was supposed to go for 3 days total to watch tennis, however jet-lag had other plans for me. It finally caught up to me and I spent Tuesday in bed in my hotel unable to go to any matches. Thankfully, the hotel TV had tennis on 3 separate channels, so I watched that all day. 

Wednesday was the night I got to go to Rod Laver Arena and watch a night session. For me it was very lucky as They had lined up 2 Australian players for that session: Jelena Dokic, who was making her return to tennis after all the drama when she was younger, and Bernard Tomic, a 16 year old who had made it to the 2nd round in his Grand Slam debut. Jelena's match was fiercely competitive and it was so amazing to watch. She may be older, but her shot making is still very much amazing. She ended up beating Anna Chakvetadze (who is a top 20 player) and advancing to the 3rd round (where she ended up beating Caroline Wozniacki, the number 11 seed!). It has been an amazing run for her and I was so lucky to be there for that match. She was so emotional afterwards and was just so happy to have been back on Rod Laver Arena. Go Jelena! 

Bernard Tomic started off quite well, but his inexperience and age caught up with him quickly. Things started to go downhill quickly for him after the first set, but he has a lot of talent and we should hopefully see great things from him in the future. He just needs to get more experience playing with the top players in the world. 

Thursday marked the day session I went to and it was very exciting for me as I found out that I would be getting to see Serena Williams play at Hisense Arena. I also caught Elena Dementieva in her last set once I got there and she played incredibly well. Serena had a bit more of a tough battle to fight. Now, I hate to be mean and judge on appearances, but Gisela Dulko, who was playing Serena, looking like a drag queen. She reminded me of those girls in high school who cake on make, get a streaky fake tan and have terrible highlights. She was pretty intense. In all fairness, she did make Serena play her best tennis. In the 2nd set, Serena managed to come back from 0-3 and win the set 7-5. It was close, but she did it! I am glad I got to see Serena at the Australian Open.... it fulfilled one of my many dreams.

They have a lot going on on the grounds around the tournament. They have shops, live theatre, music, food.....a lot! I got to wandering around the outer courts because the rest of the matches at Hisense were pretty boring and I didn't feel like sitting around. I came across the practice courts. Now most tennis fans know that this is your opportunity to see players up close and get some good pictures and potentially that lucrative autograph. I was lucky enough to see Roger Federer (before the hundreds of people crammed around his court), Daniela Hantuchova (a top 20 player) and.....SERENA WILLIAMS!. Evidently she didn't play enough, so she was out practicing some more. It is the coolest thing to be about 10 feet away from someone you've only ever seen on TV. You also get to see how amazing their tennis is up close. She has great movement and some great shots... I was very impressed. I didn't hang around to see if I could get an autograph because I had to go and there were scads of people hanging around her court as well. 

Overall, I had a great time at the Australian Open and I am glad I was able to go.

Link to Australian Open Photos - Day Session

Link to Australian Open Photos - Night Session

(Tip for the photos: It will take you to a message I sent myself if you click on this link. Just click on the photo album title and that will take you to the pictures! You don't need to sign up for Facebook to view them!)

Above is a bonus video of Serena Williams playing!

9. Melbourne!

Well I have arrived in Melbourne today and I had quite a bumpy landing. I don't like sitting at the rear of the plane and that is where I ended up sitting today. Row 56. Evidently, the turbulence was worse back there.

I haven't been up to too much the last few days. I am looking forward to watching some tennis tomorrow and it should be a lot of fun. I am also looking forward to all the sunshine and heat!

I'll be sure to update about tennis as the week progresses!

8. Tennis: The Evening Session

So Friday night I went to watch the women's final of the Medibank International. I was excited (not as excited as I would have been if Serena Williams were in the final) to see a final! Earlier this week I was lucky enough to see some early round action, but I got to see two Russians battle it out. It was Elena Dementieva (I was routing for her) against Dinara Safina.

The match was great! It went to 3 sets and there was definitely some quality tennis to watch. Both are amazing athletes... the legs on them! It was close at one point, but by the time Elena was up 4-0 in the third set, I knew she had won! And she did! Elena is a funny player to watch as she has an interesting grunt and isn't afraid to scream when she makes a mistake. On one point, she was screaming before the ball had even crossed the net as she knew it was going out. Dinara was also quite funny. Now she has an unusually small head compared to her gangly arms and long legs, so that was funny in itself, but what was also funny was her interactions with her coach. At one point she was yelling at him from the court, telling him that his interactions with the crowd were pissing her off. There was also lots of Russian being yelled from both.

Now this is my only comment on the doubles match... it was awful. Nathalie Dechy needs to retire....

And I am off to the Australian Open on Monday! Melbourne here I come!

7. Bondi and such.

Well I am a tad behind in my blog writing, but let me bring you up to date.

I visited Bondi Beach yesterday which is one of the more famous Australian beaches. It was absolutely beautiful! It is unlike any beach I have come across before in the fact that it is very much in a kind of bay. It's quite protected and inset from the coast which makes it calmer, but it still gets a really nice breeze. 

I managed to walk through the sand which is incredibly fine sand. Very white and sparkly. It felt amazing, but it was hard to walk in. I also did the Coastal walk with my friend Mark. There is some spectacular scenery along it. My geography geek side comes out when I can tell you the types of erosion that I witness, but I won't because I am not that lame. (note, there was wind AND water erosion for those who care.)

Overall, it was a beautiful day to go as there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was nice and cool thanks to the wind coming off the coast. It was certainly hot out that day and I managed not to get sunburnt. Today however was stinking hot.

Now I was told I was not allowed to complain about how hot it is here, but it was so humid it was brutal. I decided to go to the big mall here called Westfield's which is in Bondi. It was so awful taking the train there. It was probably upwards of 40 degrees on the train... I got lost several times in the mall, but managed to find some cheap CDs and a pair of jean shorts and got my exercise in! Anyways, it was 38 degrees at the peak today here. However, within an hour, it dropped to about 24 degrees and a lovely storm moved in.

As I write this, I can still hear some rolling thunder in the distance, but man it dumped rain! There are huge puddles all over the roads. At least I now know what their giant storm drains are for. I never thought they got use!

My other random side note for the evening is regarding parallel parking in Australia. Now, parallel parking is difficult, however, every time I see someone trying (the key word being TRYING) to parallel park, they manage to hit the curb several times and are incapable of straightening out. I think they need to introduce a new training course or start an Australian version of Canada's Worst Driver....

6. Tennis tennis tennis tennis twins

So I was lucky enough to get to go see the Medibank International here in Sydney on Tuesday. It was pretty spectacular! I didn't stay for the whole day as it was a long one (not to mention that sitting in the sun for a long time really isn't too fun, especially when your knees get burnt...) but I was able to see a few matches.

Prior to the matches starting, I was lucky enough to see Novak Djokovic warming up on centre court. He is quite good, but has a very cocky attitude about himself. He did sign autographs for people though on his way out. The first match was Daniela Hantuchova against Agnieska Radwanska (quite the doozy to spell!) and was mediocre at best. Daniela has long legs and some great shots, but she just seemed to be out of practice a bit. Hopefully she will do better in the Australian Open.

The next match I saw was Serena Williams (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) against some Italian player named Sara Errani. Personally, I didn't like her (most likely because she was playing my favourite player) because she wasn't that great of a player. She also looked like a gremlin while serving (I will let you figure out the visuals for that one). Serena is an amazing player to see in person. She has a dominating figure and can hit winners from the most unusual places and at the most unusual times. I was just amazed by how spectacular she was. When Serena won points, it was off winners. When Sara won points, it was usually by an error made by Serena. Her fastest serve was 187km/h (again, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). I would be lucky to hit even a quarter of that speed! Overall, I was glad to have seen her play in person and to see how amazing she is.

I watched a bit of Lleyton Hewitt's match against some French guy, but I was too tired to stay. So I headed around the grounds and when nothing caught my eye, I decided to leave. On my walk back to the train station, I was walking along when I saw someone who looked vaguely familiar....I couldn't quite place it, but when his eye caught mine, I knew who it was! It was Jamie Murray (Andy Murray's brother, who plays doubles) coming back from a work out! So random!

Alas, that ended my day at the Medibank International. However, something I have noticed since being here has intrigued me so much that I figured I would make a quick comment about it. Have you ever heard the theory that everybody has a twin? I always thought it was true (look at celebrity look-alikes!) but never fully believed it. Since being here in Sydney, I have seen twins for several people. It is insanely weird, but if you ever want to try and find your twin, I highly recommend you come to Australia...

5. Shopping!

Every holiday involves shopping. We always tend to shop a little here and there, picking up souvenirs or buying ourselves something we need for our trip. It's a bit different when you are traveling for an extended period of time...say a year?

Today I went shopping on the hunt for a new pair of shoes as I am discovering the lack of diversity one pair has. So on my way downtown to pick up tennis tickets, (more on this later!) I decided to do some shopping as well while I was down there. Pitt Street is one of the main shopping streets, so I had a look through a few shops. 

I ended up buying a few things (all shown in the above picture) including those new shoes! Slides seem to be the trendy shoe here in Sydney, so I joined the trend (though mine are more classic than some I have seen!)

Now more on those tickets! Well Sydney has a warm-up tournament before the Australian Open: The Medibank International Sydney. I knew about it before coming here, but didn't know if I would be able to make it or if I was wanting to go. One of the joys of living in Australia is their admiration for tennis...it's always on TV. So I decided I would go as I needed some more stuff to do this week. I am going twice this week which should be exciting. I chose to do one day session and one night session. 

Much to my delight, the schedule for tomorrow includes Serena Williams, one of my favourite players in the tennis world! I am extremely excited to see her play live! I'll just have to make sure I get there with plenty of time! The link to the draw: http://www.medibankinternational.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/op-tuesday.pdf (just copy & paste the link into the address bar in your browser)

Tomorrow should be a good day. And yes, I will update the blog about it tomorrow!

4. Le weekend.

So yesterday was a glorious day. Beautiful and sunny. I had a chance to walk around quite a bit of the downtown area with a friend of mine, Mark. He was kind enough to show me around a few places, so I strapped on the walking shoes and started walking!

We went through Hyde Park past the set ups for the Sydney Festival (far too many people around), past the stage where Grace Jones was to perform that night and into the gardens. The gardens are such a beautiful setting considering that they are right next to the downtown. We chose a nice place to sit down and relax for a bit and heard Grace Jones doing her soundcheck...it was quite something.

After that we headed into the downtown area to grab some lunch and explore a few places there. The Queen Victoria Building was beautiful. Sandstone (the only stone Australia appears to use) and stained glass everywhere. They had a huge Christmas tree in it that had a ridiculous amount of Swarovski crystal dangling in it. Afterwards we wandered down to Darling Harbour which reminded me a bit of False Creek / Granville Island. We grabbed a Starbucks and hung out there for a bit before wandering back to Mark's area, Surry Hills.

Mark and I ended up making dinner and relaxing after all that walking and it was an amazing feeling to be able to walk to the train station and from there home in just a t-shirt and shorts....Ahh Australia....

Jonathan comes back for the afternoon today before heading back out again for a well deserved vacation. It's been weird not having him around, but at the same time, it makes it interesting! The Australian Open is creeping up on me...

3. Day Three

So I am finally getting adjusted to this whole Australia time zone and climate thing I think. I have been able to get good sleeps without waking up, and I have also avoided the dreaded falling asleep mid-day thing. I am still a little uncoordinated and my energy levels aren't quite what they normally are, but I am not complaining! It's 830pm and I haven't fallen asleep yet!

I ventured out on Thursday to the bank to finish setting up my bank account with Commonwealth Bank. The lady who helped me was quite nice, but man are banks different that what they are in Canada. They still have plastic, bulletproof shields in front of them. Jonathan informs me that some of the larger branches are more open and that one bank just has random pods everywhere instead of desks...crazy Australian bankers! 

Having gone into the bank, I also had to go to Arncliffe to do it. I visited the post office to collect an item for Jonathan and then ventured through the grocery shop there called IGA. It's not quite the same as the one in Vancouver, but I have a feeling it must be similar somehow. It was interesting seeing all the different foods that we have here, but relabeled or renamed. For instance, Nestle Cheerios...

Today Jonathan and I slept in, cleaned and then headed off to the harbour of Sydney and downtown. I had my first experience on their train system which is pretty efficient. It is reminiscent of the underground in London. Jonathan pointed out that it's most likely because they tried to make it like the underground in London....ah well.

Circular Quay, which is where we got off the train, is also where the Opera House is as well as the bridge, ferries, botanical gardens and craploads of people. It was pretty busy when we got there...in fact it was busy EVERYWHERE downtown today. The Opera house is beautiful. The tiles are yellowed (damn photoshop for making them white!) but what do you expect from something that is exposed to the sun and other elements!

Asides from wandering around the bay, we wandered around downtown and Jonathan took me to the shopping district and a few other places he thought I may want to find on my own if he weren't around. All in all, it was a great day to explore and see some of the iconic parts of Sydney.

2. Day One

So I am finally here. After a ridiculous amount of flying time, I arrived into sunny Sydney today. What an interesting experience. I did a lot better than I thought I would, and as suspected, I got next to no sleep.

By the time I arrived into Hong Kong (14 hours later), I was exhausted, but had to wait a couple hours for my connecting flight. Thankfully the airport in Hong Kong is big, so I wandered around for awhile. This made me even more tired, but my legs were thankful for some form of movement.

The flight from Hong Kong to Sydney was brutal. Not only did I have to contend with screaming children, but I had to battle my fatigue. When I get tired, my stomach tends not to agree with much of anything, so there was that, and then uncomfortable seats. I finally fell asleep due to exhaustion and had a horrible 3/4 sleep for a good few hours.

This seemed to help and I was able to survive the rest of my journey. Once I arrived into Sydney, I was instantly hit by the heat. It was about 30 degrees here today and sunny, but lovely. After dropping my bags off, and showering and changing (that helped my sanity) Jonathan took me around the immediate neighbourhood to make sure I wouldn't die when he leaves me for the weekend and I enjoyed being out in the heat. He has some great things around his flat.

The rest of my day was spent attempting to adjust to the time change. I kicked Jonathan's ass at Wii Tennis and we struggled with Mario Kart. Tomorrow I will be attempting to organize my life so that I don't impose on Jonathan too much. I also need to head to the bank and finish setting up my bank account with them. I may also explore the parks near Jonathan's place.

Anyways, back to getting some sleep...I think I may be tired now...

Love and light,

XOXO